Supreme Court fixes April 22 to hear PDP appeal over nullified Ibadan convention

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has scheduled April 22 to hear appeals filed by the Kabiru Turaki-led leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the nullification of the party’s Ibadan national convention.

A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Mohammed Garba, granted an accelerated hearing of the appeals in a ruling delivered on Tuesday.

The appellants — the PDP, its National Working Committee (NWC), and National Executive Committee (NEC) — had, through their counsel Chris Uche (SAN), filed a motion on April 8 seeking a departure from the Supreme Court rules to abridge the time for respondents to file their briefs of argument.

While moving the application, Uche argued that the matter required urgent determination in the interest of justice.

He informed the court that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), listed as a respondent in the suit, had fixed April 23 as the commencement date for submission of candidates by political parties.

According to him, his clients had also filed an affidavit of extreme urgency to justify the need for an expedited hearing.

Counsel to the PDP faction loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Emmanuel Ukala, did not oppose the request for accelerated hearing but sought 15 days to respond to the appeal. INEC’s counsel also requested 10 days to file its briefs.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court granted the application for abridgement of time and ordered all respondents to file their briefs within five days. The appellants were directed to file any reply within two days of service. The court further ordered that all processes be filed and exchanged on or before April 21 and fixed April 22 for the substantive hearing of the appeal.

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The appeal stems from a series of court judgments nullifying the PDP’s Ibadan national convention.

In October 2025, a Federal High Court in Abuja restrained the PDP faction led by Seyi Makinde and Bala Mohammed from proceeding with its planned convention in Ibadan.

Justice James Omotosho held that the party failed to conduct valid state congresses as required by the 1999 Constitution, INEC guidelines, and its own constitution before scheduling the convention.

Separately, another Federal High Court judge, Peter Lifu, granted interim and later final orders restraining the PDP from holding the convention, pending the determination of a suit filed by Sule Lamido.

Lamido had approached the court, alleging that he was unjustly denied the opportunity to purchase the nomination form to contest for the party’s national chairmanship. In his judgment, Lifu held that Lamido’s exclusion violated the PDP constitution and internal regulations, and ordered that the convention be put on hold to allow him participate.

Despite the restraining orders, the Turaki-led faction proceeded with the Ibadan convention, which produced Kabiru Turaki as national chairman of the faction alongside other members of its NWC.

However, the Wike-aligned faction did not participate in the Ibadan gathering and instead constituted a parallel NWC, Board of Trustees (BoT), and NEC. That faction later conducted its own convention in Abuja and secured a high court judgment granting it access to the PDP national secretariat in the capital.

On March 9, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria affirmed the Federal High Court decisions restraining the conduct of the Ibadan convention and dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP NWC challenging the lower court’s jurisdiction.

With INEC’s deadline for candidate submissions looming, the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision is expected to determine which faction holds legitimate leadership of the party ahead of the next electoral cycle.